NEW YORK CITY: HERE has adopted a new leadership structure as founding artistic director Kristin Marting prepares to step down in June. Three co-directors will lead the organization and guide its artistic vision, while each leverages their individual skills and passions to serve different functions. In the first of three leadership appointments, HERE’s associate artistic director and marketing director Amanda Szeglowski has been promoted to co-director. HERE is working with consultants Doug Clayton, Calida Jones, and Rebecca Novick of Creative Evolutions to launch a national search for the two other co-directors, with the goal of having candidates selected by June.
“The announcement of Amanda’s promotion to co-director and the beginning of a national search for two other co-directors to complete the triumvirate of future leadership at HERE,” said board chair Jennifer Suh Whitfield in a statement, “is a result of deliberate succession planning and strategic work that was carried out by HERE’s community of incoming and outgoing leadership, board, staff, artists, and partners. Eight months ago, the board of directors formed a strategic planning committee that began work with Creative Evolutions to position HERE for the transition from a founder-led organization to an organization with a dynamic shared leadership model. This invaluable process propelled by HERE’s progressive values and desire to empower diverse perspectives through collaborative work and intentional relationship building has all stakeholders informed, engaged, aligned, and excited for the next phase of hiring and providing support for new leadership.“
Szeglowski is a writer, director, choreographer, and working artist mom of two based in New York City. She has been with the organization for 13 years and was awarded a three-year HERE Artist Residency in 2014 through which the company commissioned, developed, and produced her multimedia performance project Stairway to Stardom. Szeglowski is the founder and artistic director of cakeface, an all-women contemporary American dance-theatre company. In her time at HERE, Szeglowski has overseen various initiatives for the organization, including the residency program and the curated rental Sublet Series, and served as the marketing director for the PROTOTYPE festival. She was one of six artists selected for the inaugural Baryshnikov Arts Center Open Residency in 2022, among other awards. Szeglowski graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Florida with a BA in dance and a minor in business administration.
“I have always loved the sheer diversity of art that embodies HERE and the electrifying feeling of, ‘what did I just witness?!’ that I have reveled in after countless HERE experiences,” said Szeglowski in a statement. “I am thrilled that I will be in a position to seek out, discover, and share more of these kinds of works with our audiences…I’m eager to join my co-directors in leading this trailblazing organization, whose courage and influence has shaped the field for three decades. Together, we will work to continue HERE’s legacy of always pushing forward.”
Founded in 1993, HERE is a New York City arts organization dedicated to building an inclusive community that nurtures artists of all backgrounds as they disrupt conventional expectations to create innovative performances in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art. As of 2022, HERE had an approximate budget of $3.7 million.
